They said that while research showed how personal budgets could be used to most effectively improve outcomes for service users, many councils were taking the opposite approach.

"We too often find unsuitable systems for resource allocation, burdensome support planning approaches not controlled by people themselves, rigid rules on spend, social workers not trusted to make judgements, people left without information, advice and advocacy, under-developed markets and restrictive preferred provider lists," it said.

Leading advocates of self-directed support warn bureaucracy and lack of trust in people and social workers is derailing personal budgets, in open letter to care services minister.<a href="http://adserver.adtech.de/adlink|3.0|289|1187466|0|277|ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=[group]" target="_blank"><img src="http://adserver.adtech.de/adserv|3.0|289|1187466|0|277|ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=[group]" border="0" width="2" height="2" /></a>

The letter warned that the next couple of years were "absolutely critical" in determining whether personalisation delivered big improvements for people or became a "tragically missed opportunity". "As things stand there is great potential but a high risk of failure," it added.